Let's Keep Driving Forward on Connected Cars & Next-Gen Wi-Fi

These days, there isn’t a lot of harmony in the world of technology policy. But there is a bright spot of bipartisanship in a section of our airwaves: the 5.9 GHz band. In 2020, the FCC voted unanimously to modernize the rules in this spectrum to allow both Wi-Fi and automotive safety tech to operate. This win-win was celebrated by proponents of car safety and broadband alike. But today the Department of Transportation (DOT) is working on a study that may purposely have been designed to undo this decision. At a time when broadband is more important than ever, we should not undo this popular and bipartisan policy.

This approach in 5.9 GHz will benefit any American who uses Wi-Fi; today, that’s almost all Americans. Broadband providers and others will now be able to use the lower part of the band to strengthen Wi-Fi networks. As the pandemic showed us, Americans rely on these networks more than ever to access jobs, education, healthcare, and financial services. And as bandwidth-hungry applications like the Internet of Things and streaming proliferate, this new spectrum for Wi-Fi will create a wider channel to help meet that need. This particular swath of spectrum also sits between an existing Wi-Fi band and the new 6 GHz unlicensed band, meaning that existing chipsets can use it right way with little modification. That translates to better Wi-Fi without a system upgrade.

The FCC’s decision is also critical for American jobs, as technologies like Wi-Fi add trillions of dollars to the global economy every year. Economists calculate that enabling access to part of the 5.9 GHz band will add more than $28 billion by 2025. In fact, this spectrum has been used for the past two years to provide consumers with additional bandwidth to meet increased demand during the pandemic.

The decision also modernized the rules for “talking cars” by allowing C-V2X to replace an old, failed tech called dedicated short-range communications (DSRC). This advances the future of auto safety since DSRC was not deployed by the automotive industry in any meaningful way. C-V2X advocates told the FCC that these 30 megahertz of spectrum would be sufficient to deliver time-critical safety messages and applications to keep more drivers, passengers, and pedestrians safe.

The FCC undertook a lengthy, full, and fair public process that considered the views of all stakeholders, from consumer advocates and technology companies to the DOT, state transportation agencies, and car manufacturers. The result was a bipartisan and unanimous decision that includes careful technical rules to protect automotive services.

But the DOT’s recently announced study appears to be designed to undermine the FCC’s decision. This is likely spurred by the automotive industry, re-asserting a claim that outdated car technology should have control of the entire swath of spectrum. What’s more, the study involves no public comment and appears to be relying on improper technical assumptions and methodologies. We fear that DOT will attempt to use this flawed study to pressure the FCC to roll back its bipartisan decision on the 5.9 GHz band. This would be government agency dysfunction run amok.

Rather than relitigate the FCC’s policy on a spectrum matter that is squarely in its jurisdiction, DOT should focus on helping the automotive industry deliver on those vehicle-safety promises, bringing the automotive industry’s new C-V2X technology to vehicles.

Spectrum is a finite asset, and after a twenty-year grant of exclusive use of the band, the FCC was right to not allow this critical mid-band frequency to lay fallow any longer. Given the importance of the 5.9 GHz band to the country, the federal government must speak with a unified voice on spectrum. Congress should direct the DOT to drop this testing immediately.

Ian Adams is Executive Director of the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE).

Kathleen Burke is Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge, working on telecom and copyright.

Deborah Collier is Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs at Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW).

Alan S. Inouye is Senior Director of Public Policy & Government Relations at the American Library Association (ALA).

Ryan Johnston is Policy Counsel for Federal Programs at Next Century Cities.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman is Senior Counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.

Joel Thayer is President of the Digital Progress Institute (DPI).